After years of getting calls from private equity firms and other investors, Sunset Air & Home Services founder Jason Schreyer chose a different path for his Fort Myers company: employee ownership.
Schreyer said the decision to move the HVAC business to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, was rooted in how he views the company’s long-term future and the people who helped build it. "The people that got me here, I want to make sure they’re well taken care of", he says of the company that does about $15 million a year in revenue and has a payroll of over 50 employees.
The company, founded in 1999, shifted about 15 years ago from new construction work to equipment service and replacement after the 2008-09 recession. It now has 53 employees and has grown from a $5-million company to a $15-million company in the last five or six years.
Schreyer, 56, said he never seriously considered selling to private equity or similar investors, despite strong offers and frequent outreach over the last four years.
He said watching other owners go that route shaped his thinking. "It basically was the demise of their legacy", says Schreyer, 56. "They don’t have any of their original employees left anymore, and it all turned into nothing but sales and no relationships."
Instead, he pursued an ESOP structure, which he learned about through a business friend who had helped other clients establish them. After additional research, Schreyer said the model fit both his goals and the company’s needs. "It just made all the right sense to do it", he says. "It was a very good deal for myself as well as my employees."
ESOPs are retirement plans that give workers an ownership stake in the business. In this structure, a company contributes shares of its stock or cash to buy stock into a trust fund, and those shares are allocated to employee accounts, typically based on pay or time with the company. Employees gain increasing rights to those shares as they build seniority.
For Sunset Air & Home Services, the transition began in October 2025. Schreyer worked with Pace Financial Group, which handled evaluations and other parts of the process. "It is a little tasking when you’re having to produce so much information", says Schreyer. "It’s about a one- to two-year process before it’s 100% done. But once you get through the initial few months, it becomes much easier."
Schreyer chose a vesting schedule that allows employees to become vested within three years.
He said the structure gives employees a more stable retirement plan and may sharpen day-to-day performance. "I think that it keeps people a lot sharper at their jobs", he says. "They want to do more. It also shows our customers that we’re committed to our employees and the community."
That message aligns with how Schreyer says he has built the company, which relies largely on referrals and word of mouth rather than extensive advertising. "I never did a lot of advertising over the years", says Schreyer, who grew up in Southwest Florida. "It’s just about just knowing all the right people and treating people the right way. I’ve always built it into everyone here to have a positive attitude every day and show people you can be a successful business and still do it the right way."
The business has also benefited from active hurricane seasons during its recent growth period, though Schreyer said that was not the only factor. "But we were on a very big upward swing anyway", says Schreyer. "That was just a little bit more of a magnifier to help."
Schreyer said the company has received positive feedback since introducing the ESOP transition, particularly from longtime workers. "The older crew that’s been here and been around the block a time or two, they understand that this is a great opportunity for them to have something after working for so long for someone", he says. "Some of the young guys here that are only a couple years in, they don’t quite understand it. But we’re trying to work with them to make them understand."
He also said the move offers reassurance about the company’s continuity if something happens to him. "One of the factors that really helped me make the decision was that if something ever happens to me from this point on, the company will carry on as is", he says. "There won’t be a lot of things my family would have to deal with; everything is in place now."
Schreyer said he would encourage other owners to at least consider the option. "I would tell them that if they’re in the market for wanting to step back and possibly sell their company, I would highly recommend they take the time necessary to at least evaluate an ESOP for their business, especially if they have a lot of longtime employees", he says. "I certainly wouldn’t be where I’m at if I didn’t have more than 15 employees who have been with me over 20 years.
